Memory and Futurity
in Yaangna
Memory and Futurity in Yaangna is a series of programs looking at the authentic and multi-layered history of Yaangna (Downtown Los Angeles), memory culture and public space/civic art presented by the LA County Department of Arts & Culture, the Native American Indian Commission, and Meztli Projects.
In July 2020, the Department of Arts and Culture put out a call for for artists, in collaboration with the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, to create a temporary artwork or program in response to the November 2018 removal of the Columbus Statue at Grand Park, downtown Los Angeles. Two projects were selected: a virtual engagement program by the Puvungna Collective and temporary art installation by Mercedes Dorame.
As some of you might know, Meztli Projects has been at the core of reimagining public space through the removal of monuments and harmful narratives that erase the authentic stories of Yaangna, what we now know as Los Angeles.
On November 10, 2018, the Columbus Statue at Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles was removed and placed in storage. The removal was made possible through organizational efforts that have included the Native American Indian Commission, members of the Native American community, the families of Zapotepec (an indigenous-based Agricultural school and research center located in East Los Angeles), artists such as Tanya Melendez, and members of Meztli Projects (Joel Garcia, and River Tikwi Garza, Tongva) among others in counsel with our Tongva relatives. At this time the statue remains as part of the collection of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture but the deaccessioning process is in its final steps.
Memory and Futurity in Yaangna is a project developed by Meztli Projects in partnership with the Native American Indian Commission and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture with the following goals.
To recenter the narrative relating to the Columbus Statue and its removal on the Original Peoples of this city and its descendants
To join the growing international community putting forth efforts to uplift authentic stories of place through community-centered and restorative practices
To envision new possibilities of engagement with civic/public art and capture data on the community's vision for restoring the area where the Columbus Statue was located
Wee Nehiinkem—All my Relatives
Nechoova yakeenax—Dance with me
Taamet’e Pakook—The Sun is Rising
Tongva artist Mercedes Dorame created a temporary art installation in Grand Park, to coincide with the programming of Memory is in the Present. The artwork will be available for viewing November 21, 2020 – January 4, 2021 and is located in the second block of the park between Grand Ave and Hill St.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an artist with deep roots in Tovaangar (Los Angeles). I am Tongva, I was born and have lived most of my life in this city. My cultural and personal connection to the land inspires my art practice and social justice work bringing visibility to the Tongva and other Native people who inhabit this city. I constantly explore my experience and interactions in a place my ancestors have always called home. I am interested in pathways and points of access into the land to which I feel deeply connected. As an Indigenous person in my homeland, I have to deal with the contradiction of feelings of belonging, contrasted with feelings of being called a trespasser on somebody else’s private land. These contradictions propel me to fight the institutional erasure we experience and build a more reciprocal relationship to the land and sky.
A NOTE ABOUT MONUMENTS FROM THE ARTIST
Monuments are often referencing the past—past heroes, past events, however, my intent is to bring visibility to that which has always and continues to inspire us as Indigenous people: the sky, the land, indigenous plant life, celestial bodies and our infinite ability to be connected to these entities and each other. This connection brings opportunity for healing to the community, truth in understanding the Indigenous intrinsic knowing around these entities, and reconciliation for those that participate and experience the installation and exchange of knowledge around Indigeneity.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Wee Nehiinkem—All my Relatives is an invitation to look up and observe the movement of the sun to remember and to imagine. Working with the Tongva origin story of Taraaxashom or the Pleiades, I create star maps of remembering, reconnection, and envisioning. In pointing to cosmic movement I ask the viewer to look up, to observe, find perspective, and reverence. I also invite the viewer to look down, to know that the ground they stand on is Tongva land, and to reawaken this connection to our history to envision a more equitable future.
This installation will also be here in the park for the Winter Solstice a time where our ceremony pulls back the sun back into the sky to create longer days. I use cast concrete star stones, ochre, cinnamon, salt, shells stones, paint, and red yarn, traditional and contemporary cultural materials to map this story.
The plinth holds a canvas with a star map of Taraaxashom (the Pleiades), six Tongva women who when they found out their partners were holding back food from the community, catapulted themselves into the sky to become the stars that created Taraaxashom (the Pleiades). The shade sails are a star map of Taurus, who is the arrangement of stars of the one man who brought home food for his partner and loved her so much he also sent himself up into the sky to be near her.
In re-telling our stories and claiming land I hope to reclaim space and understanding of the original caretakers of Los Angeles, the Tongva people, and to proclaim, we are here, we are vibrant, we are thriving and we will not be silent.
Birthplace of the People
Virtual Reality Film
VIRTUAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM BY THE PUVUNGNA COLLECTIVE: MEMORY IS IN THE PRESENT
Memory is in the Present… is a collaboration between Cindi Alvitre, Carly Lake, and Scott Wilson. It reflects the convergence of a Tongva storyteller, an illustrator, and a cultural anthropologist, who have come together to tell the Puvuu’nga creation narrative accurately, and in a way that honors the culture from which it originates. The resulting two projects—a traditional picture book and a virtual reality film—illuminate this story in a way that is transformative and ties people back to this place and this moment.
BACKGROUND
The Puvungna Collective is comprised of Cindi Alvitre, Carly Lake, and Scott Wilson. In this artistic collaboration Alvitre holds the role of Tongva storyteller, Lake is the visual artist, and Wilson is the cultural anthropologist with a history of developing virtual reality films. On the campus of Cal State University Long Beach, the collaboration began with Alvitre and Lake meeting and creating the picture book Waa’aka’: The Bird Who Fell in Love with the Sun. Written by Alvitre and illustrated by Lake, the book is a retelling of the Tongva story of how the sun got up into the sky. During their work on the book, Alvitre and Lake also teamed up with Wilson to create a virtual reality film sharing another Tongva creation story about the emergence of the world. It tells how Puvungna, the place of the gathering, came to be of such cultural significance to the Tongva people. Their collective name refers back to Puvungna, the source of inspiration and the site on the campus of CSULB where indigenous community members continue to hold ceremonies.
A NOTE ABOUT MEMORIALS & PUBLIC SPACES FROM THE ARTISTS
"As the literal ground for being and moving through the world around us, public spaces and their monuments play an immensely important role in the development of social justice movements. Murals, monuments, and statues immortalize people, events, and moments on the timeline of the community’s narrative. They surround the users of spaces with signifiers about what or who is important and why—with the materiality of the monument’s bronze, concrete, or steel façade lending an air of objectivity. But this is an illusion, and a challenge to those who seek equity and change. It is imperative that those concerned with social justice strip away that veneer of objectivity to challenge, interrogate, and sometimes invert the social relations and structures of power immortalized in public art and monuments. To re-signify public spaces is to conjure new opportunities to imagine something different. Something better. Something more intimately inclusive of the land and all of its people—past, present, and future."
WAA'AKA': THE BIRD WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE SUN
Waa'aka': The Bird Who Fell in Love With The Sun tells the story of a beautiful bird who falls in love with Tamet, the sun, and tries to follow him up to the sky. Waa'aka' is written by Cindi Alvitre and illustrated by Carly Lake, and is available at Heyday Publishers
BIRTHPLACE OF THE PEOPLE VR FILM
Birthplace of the People: A Tongva Origin Story is a 14-minute 360 virtual reality film which tells the story of Weywot and the creation of the world. The film illustrates the birth of the Tongva people on the site of Puvungna, what is now the California State University, Long Beach campus. Puvungna—which means place of the great gathering—was the site of the world's creation, but also its first death and funeral. This 360 degree VR experience immerses the viewer in the spiritual place of Los Angeles' original inhabitants—in a mythological space that transcends time. By connecting this physical place to its spiritual past, the film is intended to remind us of histories we may have either forgotten, or may have never known. The film is narrated by Cindi Alvitre, Carly Lake produced the artwork using Tilt Brush technology to paint in the 3D virtual space, and Scott Wilson directed and edited the film.
